Had a farewell party for a popular manager on Saturday night and the outpouring of love, generosity and sadness was beyond unprecedented in my 15+ years at RPL.
In-scope staff donated so much money to a farewell gift that he ended up getting multiple things – a custom photo book, a custom Pats jersey, and a skateboarding hoodie made in Regina.
At that point, the organizers literally gave up on gifts and just put the extra hundreds of dollars collected into a card – also a custom gift made by one of the many talented artists on our staff.
That’s not to mention those who gave cards and gifts directly (that’s what I did) and the hoodie he’s wearing in this photo was customized by a colleague of his in RPL’s Digital Media Studio. Oh, and out-of-scope staff had a separate fund and bought him a Ticketmaster gift card so he can attend a hockey game or concert in his new city.
I’ll likely write more about Mark and what made him so universally beloved in the context of a Wisdom Wednesday post eventually. But for now, I’ll just leave this photo…
Comments 2
Just seeing this now and it’s excellent timing as I just went to see Neil Young on the weekend – thank you Jason. Regina and RPL were pretty special (honestly maybe more the latter than the former) and I feel pretty lucky that I got to work there and work with the people I did. I can never repay the debt I owe to the staff, colleagues, and teams there and I will try always to pay it forward. Thank you!
You don’t read my blog every day?!? Just kidding.
How was Neil Young? Can’t imagine it being anything less than amazing.
Here’s a setlist from Burnaby which I assume is the one you were at?
https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/neil-young-and-the-chrome-hearts/2025/deer-lake-park-burnaby-bc-canada-2b5bc4de.html